Next meeting on Jan 26 from 5-7pm in BA B026

There's a special presentation this week by successful mobile device developer, Konrad Group. Don't

GMD 2012 EXTENDED to January 19

The submission deadline for GMD 2012 has been extended to Thursday, January 19, so keep up that vide

Game Night on Friday Nov 11

For one night only... per semester.

 

Next meeting on Jan 26 from 5-7pm in BA B026

January 18, 2012 in Featured Posts, Meeting Announcements

Hey everyone,

Our next utGDDC meeting will be happening on Thursday, January 26 from 5 – 7pm at the Bahen Center in room B026, which is just below the main floor. This week, Konrad Group, a local mobile developer, will be coming to our meeting to give a presentation on developing for mobile devices.  If you are interested in development in any way, this meeting will be an invaluable experience for you to network with industry professionals.  You can learn more about their company at http://www.konradgroup.com/

See you all on Thursday!

GMD 2012 EXTENDED to January 19

November 28, 2011 in Featured Posts, Game Club Announcements, GMD

As many of you already know by now, our GMD 2012 competition has begun and the theme for this year’s competition is “Murder Mildly Foul”.

The submission deadline for GMD 2012 has been extended to Thursday January 19!  That’s more time to fix up your games so be sure to submit whatever you’ve got by the new submission deadline, even if you’re not terribly satisfied with it, for an excellent chance to win a prize (usually every videogame submitted will win something).

We were accepting GMD 2012 sign-up forms until the beginning of January, but you can still download these forms from our website if you need to for whatever reason.  As previously mentioned, the theme for GMD 2012 is “Murder Mildly Foul”

Feel free to email us at gmd@utgddc.com if you have any other questions about GMD 2012.

Good luck, game developers!

Game Night on Friday Nov 11

November 11, 2011 in Archived Posts, Events

At U of T’s Bahen Center (the same place where we hold our weekly meetings) the CSSU presents Game Night on Friday November 11 starting at 7pm and going on all night until 7am (think clubbing for nerds). There will be lots of cool free gaming sessions and tournaments going with games like Left 4 Dead 2, Starcraft, Street Fighter, and others.

The CSSU is also still interested in those who would like to volunteer to help setup and lend gaming consoles and computers for the evening. So, if you’d like to help contribute to the fun, email the CSSU and have a chance to win a prize for your efforts. More information about this can be found on the CSSU’s webpage about Game Night.

So come on down and give yourself the fun you deserve at Game Night. Even the utGDDC Arcade cabinet that fellow member Tyler has finished will be making an appearance.

Behind Lucky Shot Part 2 of 2 – Sharp Wit?

November 6, 2011 in Archived Posts

Last time, I showed you the simple but effective physics system that powered Lucky Shot. By the end of the article, we had a smooth, adjustable, and flexible movement system that we could apply to each of the AI enemies. I also mentioned that the physics system took care of most of the natural-feeling movement of the game’s enemies, and that the underlying AI was comparatively simple. This is what I’ll be showing you in this article — how the physics and AI worked in tandem.

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Behind Lucky Shot Part 1 of 2 – Smooth Moves

October 30, 2011 in Blog

A while back, I posted a postmortem for my game, Lucky Shot. In it, I mentioned that one of the aspects that was most well-received was the AI. I myself found this amusing — while it was a good system, it was incredibly simple, only a small step above the enemies you see in a game like Super Mario Bros. So how did the enemies move so smoothly? A lot of it has to do with the movement system, and that’s what I’m going to cover in this article.

Before I get started, though, I’d just like to say that this likely won’t be anything new to anyone who’s programmed a physics system in a game before — in fact, if you have, you will likely see this as overly basic. And it is. This is meant more as a beginner’s introduction and as a showcase on how some very simple ideas can lead to some very nice behaviour. It does, however, require some knowledge of high-school level math and physics.

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Lucky Shot Postmortem

October 23, 2011 in Blog

Hey there folks! For those who don’t know me, I’m Gabriel, former VP of the club. You may have seen me popping into meetings fashionably late, coming from my PEY job. This post kicks off a short 3-part series about my GMD game from last year, Lucky Shot. These entries were originally written for my personal blog, Kronopath, and the future entries will be thrown up simultaneously on both sites. So now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let’s get started!

During the last GMD, I created a retro-gambling-shooter game, Lucky Shot. It won the grand prize in the judged competition, ranked fourth in the public showcase, and was generally well-received. And of course, more than anything else, it was a great learning experience.

Last year was actually the first time the club ran the public showcase. We held it during the Computer Science Student Union‘s game night, and to take full advantage of it, we gave out feedback forms, asking people to rate each game and write a few words about it. I found that the reactions we observed and the feedback we got were even more valuable than the prizes given out. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how people enjoyed the game.

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How The Video Game Industry Deals with the Digital Divide

October 23, 2011 in Blog

University Of Toronto Game Design And Development Club
President – Francesco P.C

How The Video Game Industry Deals with the Digital Divide

For my Computers and Society course (CSC300H1) we were instructed to create a blog about the digital divide. The entire class was put into service learning groups and went out to help the community and learn about the digital divide.

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The UTGDDC Official Blog is Live!

October 23, 2011 in Blog, Featured Posts

It’s finally here! We’ve discussed doing this for quite some time, and now is when the rubber finally hits the road. Here you’ll be able to find editorials, tutorials, how-tos, postmortems, and more, all from the comfort of your computer screen.

Do you have something you want us to cover? Want to contribute something yourself? Contact us! Feedback is always welcome.

The Great Canadian Appathon 2

September 29, 2011 in Archived Posts, Events

The Great Canadian Appathon is happening over this weekend and starts on Friday, September 30 at 5pm. The Appathon is a video game-making competition that is completely free to sign up for, and the only requirement to compete is that you must be a student. You can work in a team of up to 4 people while you create your game, and all video game submissions for the event are due by Sunday, October 2 at 4:59pm. This competition has some great cash prizes so sign up to compete or just come down to U of T to watch the event and grab some free stuff.

The Appathon is something that you should definitely check out if you’re interesting in making games, and you can visit the Great Canadian Appathon’s website (http://greatcanadianappathon.com/) to get more details.

utGDDC Pub Night on Thurs, Dec 1 from 6 – 7pm

September 28, 2011 in Archived Posts, Meeting Announcements

Hey everyone,

Because of everyone’s busy schedule, we’ll be having an informal utGDDC end-of-semester pub night this week, instead of our regular meeting, on Thursday, December 1 where we’ll meet up at 6pm outside of BA B024 and then head down to a pub to hang out and relax . Also, we’ll be extending the deadline to sign-up for GMD 2012 until Thursday, December 8, so now you have some extra time to find a partner to participate in GMD 2012 with if you want to work in a pair.

Have a great week, everyone, and we’ll see you on Thursday.